A couple of years ago, I became intrigued with the idea of combining a war-time romance and a send up of the old black and white werewolf movies that were popular in the 1940’s. While Lon Chaney doesn’t make an appearance, there are plenty of chills, thrills and old-fashioned romance in I’ll Be Seeing You. For a little more fun, I had the cover done by an artist friend (Chico) who presented me with a painting of the final artwork, as a gift. In case you haven’t already guessed, this story is one of my favorites…

20th century historical romance with a paranormal twist…

Jack Howland, part of an elite group of OSS special agents can’t resist the pull of the moon or the memory of his brief wartime romance with widowed USO hostess, Lulu Lane. After the war, their paths cross again, but will the truth about what he is send Lulu screaming into the night or back into his arms?

Take one plain Jane Hollywood scriptwriter, add a creepy sanitarium with an even creepier staff; fold in Nazi war criminals and a war hero with a dangerous secret and you have a recipe for a roaring good time.

Excerpt #1 (mild)

May 1944

USO Club, Los Angeles, California

It was difficult not to eavesdrop in a space as close as the tiny kitchen being utilized by two other USO hostesses, especially when they were discussing the handsome lieutenant who apparently was giving one or both of them the eye.

Louisa “Lulu” Lane didn’t need to ask who they were talking about. He had all the brooding elegance of Tyrone Power combined with the rough masculinity of a young Clark Gable. Her uncle would have been desperate to sign him before another studio could snatch him up.

One glance had caught his smoldering, dark-eyed gaze but she’d convinced herself that she must be mistaken. A skillful seamstress, she’d managed to tailor a too-large brown knit dress to drape so that it actually appeared she had a bust; not many looked past the horn-rimmed glasses and scraped-back auburn hair, but the one or two who’d given her another glance had been so shy they’d barely mumbled thank-you when she’d handed them a doughnut.

“We need a second opinion, Lulu.” Kate Whistler, blonde and buxom, her wasp-waist emphasized by the trim emerald-green belt that matched her fitted dress, whispered out the side of her mouth while her identical twin, Kitty, giggled mischievously. She’d called them the Bookends since primary school and nothing had changed in fifteen years. Of the two, Kitty would be the one she’d bet was up to something, and that didn’t bode well.

Lulu wiped the tell-tale sugary residue from her hands and picked up the tray of doughnuts she’d been arranging.

“About what?” She settled the tray into an empty space on the crowded counter.

“Which one of us is he looking at?” Kitty actually sighed when the he in question stood and started making his way through a sea of tables.

She adjusted her glasses and just barely resisted the urge to check the knot of auburn hair caught up at the nape of her neck for strays.

These days, any man looked better in a uniform, but the broad-shouldered lieutenant wore the recognizable army-olive wool, it didn’t wear him. With his dark hair and eyes, he would have been movie-star handsome, even without the strong square jaw, which at the moment was clamped shut, making his smile a little intense.

“Which one?” Kate whispered frantically, as if Lulu’s answer could determine the outcome.

His approach made answering the question irrelevant. Anyone with eyes, including the twins, knew whose gaze the lieutenant had snagged. They stopped chattering and she could feel her cheeks growing warm.

“Would you care for a doughnut, Lieutenant?” Lulu inquired awkwardly, breaking the small silence when Mr. Too Good To Be True didn’t say anything.

“No thank you, ma’am. Would you care to dance?” he countered, somewhat stiffly, and she tried to chalk it up to his military demeanor. Far from home and surrounded by strangers, some men clung to it like a lifeline.

They were supposed to dance if asked, but in the nearly three years she’d been a hostess, no one ever had.